Fiona may A very good athlete 1

biography Fiona May Iapichino was born 12 December 1969 in Slough, England. She is a retired British-born Italian long jump athlete who competed. She won the World Championships twice and two Olympic silver medals. 2

Young fiona Young Fiona (11 years old) quickly made an impression, not only as a long-jumper but as a high-jumper and hurdler as well. But soon her coach, Christopher Cohen, who was also her PE teacher at Derby School, decided that she should concentrate on the long jump, and she won a lot of World Junior Championships.  3

things started to go wrong... May represented Great Britain at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, where May failed to qualify. 4

Fiona in italy She left the country, moving to Italy to live with Gianni Iapichino, a former pole-vaulter whom she married in 1993. The move was the right decision. Life in Italy, May said soon after her arrival, was a "paradise". Those days she lived in Florence where she trained. Her personal best jump was 7.11 metres, which was her silver medal result at the 1998 European Championships.  5

She competed briefly in triple jump and her career best of 14 She competed briefly in triple jump and her career best of 14.65 metres in 1998 was good enough to place fifth in the world that season. 6

LARISSA May gave birth to two daughters: Larissa in 2002 and Anastasia in 2009 , and missed the whole season. Her last significant competition to date was the 2005 World Championships, where she failed to reach the final. ANASTASIA 7

May's family May's family still lives in Derby, in a little house in the suburb of Littleover. There, her mother Sarah and younger sister, Natasha, watched the long-jump final from Gothenburg, Sweden in 1995 on television. And Mrs May said that they didn’t see her win. In fact the BBC coverage finished before the final was over and they had to ring a neighbour who had satellite TV to get the result. 8

Fiona's mother Fiona’s mother said that it was a shame her daughter had to leave home, but admitted that it had not been easy to provide the support that Fiona needed. She said also that it was hard, buying all that sports gear and paying for train fares and whatever. And they did miss her and they didn’t know if she would bring her medal at home because she lived in Italy.  9

HER LIFE AFTER THE ATHLETIC CAREER May attended Leeds Trinity & All Saints College, a college affiliated the University of Leeds, studying economics, business management and administration. In 2006 she retired from competitions and started a new successful career in show business. She became the spokeswoman of the Kinder snacks with her daughter and she won the Italian version of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2006. Later that year her acting debut was broadcast on Rai Uno as the protagonist of “Butta la luna”, a miniseries about racism and social integration.  10

Realizzato da: Maraffio Nadia & Tonni Erica 11